Via practica 2/2015

Herpes zoster: serious, but preventable disease

Herpes zoster (HZ) is serious expression of persistent infection with varicella-zoster virus. It demonstrates dominantly in adults. Main risk factor is age and connected consecutive depression of cellular immunity. It is logical, that most risky are patients with secondary immunodeficiency. In most cases HZ is self-limited disease, however, significant proportion of cases is accompanied with complications, among them visceral complications may be fatal. Postherpetic neuralgia is one of most common complications with significant impact on quality of life. However, modern medicine makes HZ preventable disease. Vaccination of persons 50 and more years old significantly reduces probability of HZ and its complications.

Keywords: herpes zoster, post-herpetic neuralgia, senior population, vaccination.